PICTURE THESE ROCKS

     The variety of beautiful stuff offered by Michigan's Upper Peninsula keeps on "wowing" us.  Our next stop on the U.P. was the town of Munising.  This quaint little town is the most tourist oriented of all the towns we visited on the U.P. and for good reason as it is the home base of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  This fantastic park has it all--spectacular waterfalls, great hikes, interesting sand dunes, beautiful beaches, but the highlight feature is the towering "painted" cliffs along the park's shoreline.  There is only one way to view the highlights of this park and that is on the water.  Although kayaking may be the favored on-water activity, we opted to take the boat tour as it travelled for many miles along virtually all of the famous pictured rocks area.

Munising Falls.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

3 Photos of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

     The pictured rocks are huge sculpted cliffs 70'-100' tall dropping into the water at the edge of the lake.  Each cliff features a multitude of colors and patterns.  The relaxing boat tour passed slowly by each geologic feature before turning around at a fantastic waterfall (Spray Falls) sprouting from the top of a cliff and splashing 70 feet into the lake.  Nature's palette of colors displayed on these cliffs was captivating!

4 Photos of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

     After an activity-full week in Munising, we headed further east to Tahquamenon (rhymes with "phenomenon") Falls State Park in the town of Paradise.  Paradise is in the middle of nowhere and offers very little as a town.  The town's best eatery isn't impressive but the restaurant's claim to fame is the fact that it makes its own ketchup.  WOW!😮 On the other hand, Paradise is perfectly situated to serve as a home-base for touring all of the region's highlights.  Of course, the state park's primary feature is 2 waterfalls.  One of the waterfalls (Lower Falls) presents itself as a series of steep cascades while the other waterfall (Upper Falls) features a wide, tall, beautiful 48 foot plunge into the river below.  AND the state park has a brewery located within a 10 minute walk from Upper Falls resulting in my usual toast of "cheers and beers" to be altered to "cheers, beers and falls."

2 Photos of Upper Falls
Tahquamenon Falls State Park

     To change things up a little, we ventured to Whitefish Lighthouse & Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.  The lighthouse is located on a point to guide the "great" ships of Lake Superior to or from the locks at Ste. Saint Marie.  This is the lighthouse which failed to operate during that fateful night in 1975 when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank taking the lives of all 29 crew members.  If the lighthouse was operational the ship may not have strayed off-course into treacherous waters.  Fittingly, not only did the museum present details of the Great Lakes' shipping misadventures, but featured the Edmund Fitzgerald as its primary exhibit.  Interestingly, the actual cause of the wreck is still the subject of controversy as some believe the ship was destroyed by crashing onto shallow shoals while others believe that the cargo doors on the deck failed resulting in massive waves flooding the ship.

Whitefish Lighthouse

The ship's bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald

One of the Edmund Fitzgerald's lifeboats.

     One fun day we visited the Oswald Bear Ranch which is a facility housing "rescue" black bears.  The ranch is full of bears separated by age as well as sex all living at the Ranch as they cannot survive in the "wild."  They are separated by sex as it is illegal to breed bears in Michigan.  It was fun watching the bears stroll around.  We even got to hold a cute cub.

4 photos of Oswald Bear Ranch.

     Our final stop in the U.P. turned out to be the perfect culmination of our fantastic trek across the state.  We camped at the Elks Lodge in Ste. Saint Marie, Michigan on the canal traversed by the giant ships of the Great Lakes.  These monster ships approach 1,300 feet in length and passed directly in front our campsite on their journey through the massive locks in Ste. Saint Marie.  It was really weird when the ships approached us as their engines emitted a low rumble which could felt deep your chest.  Even if I wasn't looking, I could instantly tell when a ship was approaching as I could feel the deep rumble well before I could actually hear the sound of the engines.

One of the giant freighters of the Great Lakes
passing in front of our campsite.

SS Valley Camp.
The Valley Camp is a retired freighter and now serves as a museum
to demonstrate the operation of these giants of the
Great Lakes.  The Valley Camp is about half the size of
the freighters sailing the Great Lakes today.

     Our stop in Ste. Saint Marie got even better as Dee Dee and Tony Sparks joined us for a week of fun and touring.  We even got to celebrate Tony's birthday at a local Mexican restaurant.  We were really pleased to end our Michigan adventure with Dee Dee and Tony.

Tony's Birthday Party.

     The Upper Peninsula did not disappoint as we were barraged with one highlight after the other, but all too soon we had to set course to return to Connecticut.

Point Iroquois Light.
Whitefish Bay National Forest Scenic Byway.
Lake Superior.

     CHEERS!